


I'll Be There For You

by DarthTella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bedsharing, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Post-Episode: s02e05-06 Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel, Romance, Ten/Rose - Freeform, written for a tumblr prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 16:51:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15912357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthTella/pseuds/DarthTella
Summary: The Doctor comforts Rose after she looses Mickey to a parallel world.





	I'll Be There For You

Rose couldn’t get comfortable.  She was laying in her childhood bed which now felt hard and lumpy, something she hadn’t really noticed in the nineteen odd years she’d spent sleeping in it.  She had just gotten used to it. The noise of traffic, couples arguing, drunk lads laughing loudly and the occasional baby crying filtered in from the outside world and into her bedroom.  But that noise was relatively quiet compared to the thoughts rushing through her head and robbing her of sleep.

She couldn’t stop thinking about how she could have ended things differently with Mickey.  Maybe if she had been a better friend, he wouldn’t have stayed in that parallel world.  But his gran was still there, and Ricky was dead.  Would he have been capable of just leaving her all on her own?  Could he actually replace Ricky?

And her father.  He was still alive!  And he was a success!  But how was he going to cope now that his Jackie was dead?  Should she have even told him she was his daughter?  That slammed the door on any kind of connection they could’ve had.

She should’ve just listened to the Doctor and stayed far away!  But if she hadn’t convinced him to go, they would’ve never discovered the Cybermen, or they would have done too late, and they would have never had access to John Lumic and they wouldn’t have…

A soft knock on her door startled her out of her out of control thoughts.  She sat up in bed and combed her fingers through her mussed up hair, making a futile attempt at looking at least a little presentable.

“Yeah?”  Rose called out softly.  After glancing at her clock she saw it was just past 1AM.

“Rose, it’s me.” The Doctor’s hushed voice was somewhat muffled through the door.

“Come in.”   She flicked on her lamp blinking at the sudden brightness.

“Can you get the door?  My hands are sorta full.”  The Doctor whisper shouted through the door.  Rose heaved out a sigh as she hauled herself out of bed.  Shrugging on the old hoodie that had been discarded on her floor she shuffled over to her door and opened it.  The warm scent of tea filled her nostrils as the Doctor handed her a steaming mug.

“Thought you could use a cuppa.”  He said softly as he strode into her room.  Before she could even say anything, the Doctor had already toed off his Converse, undid the buttons of his jacket and flopped onto her bed.

“You, uh, you gonna stand there all night?”  Rose shook herself, not realising she’d just been staring blankly at his shoes.  She must’ve been more tired than she thought.  Closing her door, she walked back over to the bed, and shook her head fondly at him.  He was just sitting there smack dab in the middle of her bright pink duvet with his ankles crossed, sipping at his tea, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.  She pushed lightly at his shoulder.

“Budge over, then.”  The mattress creaked loudly a handful of times as he shuffled over giving her as much space as he could.  Rose shot a worried look at her door for a moment hoping her mum wasn’t awake and would mistake that racket for something else entirely.  Who knows what she’d say if she saw the two of them laying in her bed.  But at this moment, she decided she was too tired to care as nothing was happening and slipped a bit quieter onto the mattress.  

The Doctor helped her adjust her pillows so they could both sit comfortably against the headboard and Rose was pleasantly surprised when he kept her arm around her shoulder.  He seemed to be feeling slightly awkward about it (perhaps also scared that Jackie would walk in on them cuddling) but then he relaxed when Rose snuggled closer to him.

They sat in companionable silence for a moment.  Rose brought her tea up to her face and inhaled more of it’s wonderful warm aroma.  She took a sip and hummed in pleasure when she found it was just perfect.  The just right balance of milk and sugar.  The tea steeped just for the right amount of time.  She took another sip and hummed again.

“Good?”  She could hear the laughter in the Doctor’s voice.  She nodded.

“Fantastic.” The Doctor chuckled quietly when Rose said his old catchphrase.  She settled even further into his embrace and took another long sip of her tea.

“How’d y’know I was awake?”  She asked.

“Well, you know…” he trailed off.  From the somewhat sheepish tone to his voice she just knew that if he had both hands free he’d either be ruffling his hair or tugging on his ear.

“Your senses that attuned to me?”  She joked.

“Somethin’ like that.”  He relented, his hand stroking her upper arm lightly.  Rose suppressed a shiver at his touch.  Even through the fabric of her hoodie it still sent a zing through her.

Rose took another sip of her tea to distract herself.

“I was just worried about you.  Especially after today.”  The Doctor’s voice was low as he squeezed her even tighter to himself.  Rose almost lost her grip on her mug, but caught it at the last moment.  

“I’m sorry about Mickey.  He’s a good man, and truly lucky to have known you.” Rose looked up at him, and saw the utter sincerity in his eyes.

“But you always called him an idiot.”  The Doctor shrugged, the corners of his mouth stretching upward slightly.

“I always saw potential in him, but was always so frustrated that he never seemed to do anything about it.  He did good in the end, I think.”  He drained the rest of his mug and set it on the bedside table.  Rose did the same and handed her mug over too.

“I’m really gonna miss him.”  Rose felt tears pricking at her eyes again, but she blinked them away.  She was so tired of crying.  She buried her face into the Doctor’s chest, even going so far of moving his tie out of the way first.  Her eyes slid closed as she listened to his dual heartbeat, fatigue taking over her.

“Mickey was right about something else too.”  She heard the Doctor’s voice rumble through his chest.  He shifted around slightly, and she heard the slip of silk as he removed his tie completely.

“’Bout what?”

“You’ve got me.” Rose raised her head again and looked up at the Doctor.

“But that’s just the point.”  He furrowed his brows at her, “I pushed him away just as soon as you dropped into my life.  An’ it wasn’t even then.  Before with… with Jimmy…” She still couldn’t say his name without wanting to vomit.

“That just means you weren’t meant to be anything more than just friends.”  Now Rose furrowed her brows at the Doctor, “You’ve known Mickey since you were a baby.  You grew up together and he became your best mate. You loved each other, but it wasn’t the sort of love that your hormone-ridden brains thought.”  That comment earned him a smack on the chest.  “You tried settling for each other because you were comfortable.  But I think he also realised he could do so much more. And I truly believe he’s gonna go out there and show the rest of those Cybermen what for, and look after his dear old gran.  And I couldn’t be more proud.”

“Never thought I’d see the day you were saying good things about Mickey.”  Rose chuckled, then she ducked her head, resting it back on his chest. “And you always have been there for me.”

“Rose Tyler, I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to pour.  I’ll be there for you like I’ve been…”  He stopped suddenly and Rose could feel his fingers tapping in rapid succession against her shoulder blade.  

“Oh, sorry that’s the  _Friends_  theme, isn’t it?”  

Rose burst out laughing.  A full-on belly laugh like she hadn’t had since that morning.  She didn’t even realise how her voice was carrying throughout the flat.  And the Doctor was laughing just as loudly.

“OI!  Keep it down in there, you two!”  Jackie’s voice boomed.  Rose sucked in several lungfuls of air before she could get herself under control. The Doctor took a bit longer, but soon it was quiet once again.

“’Cause you’re there for me too.”  He sang the last line of the song quietly, hugging Rose tightly repositioning themselves so they were both laying properly.  He reached over, switched the lamp off and pulled the duvet over them.  He fidgeted for a moment, released Rose, flung the duvet off and quickly shed his jacket tossing it in some random direction before settling back under the duvet again and drawing Rose back into his arms.

“Comfortable?” She giggled at him, but the abruptly stopped when she felt the Doctor brush his knuckles lightly against her cheek.

“Very.” He breathed, and she could feel the puff of air against her face.  His hand came to rest on the side of her neck a moment before it slid over her shoulder and down her arm before he took her hand in his.

“Doctor… are we…” Rose swallowed hard before continuing, “just friends?”

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t run away either.

“I mean, if you loved me, you’d tell me, yeah?”  Rose continued.

“I could’ve lost you today.  I was scared out of my wits when you decided to walk right into the Cyberfactory.  I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again outside of a Cybersuit.  Just the thought that you could have all your emotion ripped away and forced to kill.  I thought that hug on the hill could have been our last and I didn’t want to let go. I never want to let go.”  As he spoke, he drew Rose even closer; arms wrapped tightly against her back, legs tangled together.

“What about that whole ‘curse of the Time Lords’ thing?”  Rose’s voice was small, and she could hear his hearts hammering in his chest.

“Absolutely the stupidest thing I’ve ever said.  Yes, I’ll most likely outlive you, and that will be devastating.  So I’d much rather make my time with you as memorable as possible.”

“I’d like that too – oh!”  Rose yawned, then squeaked in embarrassment.  The Doctor chuckled.

“Get some sleep, Rose.  You’ve had one hell of a day, you deserve it.  I’ll stay with you.  Jackie already knows I’m here, so there’s minimal chance of a slap.”  Rose gasped in surprise when he tilted her head up and pressed a feather light kiss to her lips.  “Night night.”

It didn’t escape Rose’s notice that he never directly answered her earlier question. But she was confident she knew the answer.

She pressed her lips to his in a kiss of her own and he returned her gentle pressure.

“Good night, my Doctor.”

Rose was almost asleep when the Doctor started to hum quietly.  Her sleepy brain thought it was a nice lullaby.  She then hit him square in the chest when she realised it was the  _Friends_  theme.


End file.
